My Normal Life
by E-Sharp777
Summary: That is, if you consider werewolves, regular battles with monsters and dragons normal. Hi, my name is Chelsea, and I'm a half blood, and this is my story; a story of one girl's fight for purpose. Will you join me? Rated T for violence, very mild language, and some uncomfrotable scenes.
1. Chapter 1

**My Friend's Kitchen is Almost Destroyed**

This is my story.

It isn't a story of happy beginnings or completely happy endings for one reason: reality rarely ends well, and that's the way it is.

My name is Chelsea. My story begins when my best friend's housekeeper attacked me, then when I found out my friend was half-god. What did I do? Freak out. What else would any normal person do?

I went off on a challenging, life threatening adventure to find my destiny; to find out who I really was. Did I find it? Yes. In the end of it all, I finally figured it out, but it didn't come easily. Destiny isn't something that is easily come by. It's more precious to many than the most valued gem. Some are strong enough and brave enough, willing to risk it all to find it. Others are simply satisfied to live their lives in complacency, never giving their purpose a second thought. If anyone deserved to know, it was me, and the hundreds like me, but it didn't come on a silver platter. I paid for it with wounds, scars, blood, sweat and tears. Was it worth it? More than I can explain. Some are willing to do what it takes to find their purpose. I was. Are you? In the following pages, you'll read about my struggle for truth and purpose. Will you join me?

I guess I should start at the beginning: the very beginning.

Bernard Tyson was a rich business man who worked for a big rich company. It all began at a ten day business conference/retreat. That's when he met her. She had beautiful, long blonde-brown hair, a beautiful body and piercing crystal eyes. I only have one picture of her.

She and Bernard hit it off instantly. They were perfect for each other, but on the last night of the conference, they took their relationship too far. The result was me.

Bernard loved her. He tried to hunt her down on the last day and get a phone number, a Facebook account, an address, anything. He wanted to propose to her, but she was nowhere to be found. Back home, he searched for her on every search engine that existed. Months later, he gave up. The next week, there was a knock on his door. He opened it up and there she was, and in her arms was a little bundle. She handed the eight day old bundle of pink flesh to him and left. No money to help raise me, no apology, no nothing. What did my dad do? Give me up for adoption? Let my grandparents raise me? No, he gave up his busy, well-paying job and settled for a job with better hours, giving him time to spend with me in the evenings after I went to daycare. He held me, sang to me, changed my diapers, helped me with school, comforted me when I heard the other kids gossiping about me and the fact that I only had a dad, then he did the most amazing thing possible for me: for my sixteenth birthday, he gave me a picture of my mom. He's the most amazing person I know.

The only thing my mom gave me was my name, and something about that fixed everything.

So I grew up. That was interesting.

I never as a child understood my dad's cautiousness towards weird things. For example, we really never went to popular places. Weird stuff like that.

We were always moving, therefore, I was always going to different schools. Where this story begins is a high school in Los Angeles, CA. My dad didn't want the transfer to LA, but things were tough that year and he had told me it would only be a few months then he could be transferred somewhere else. That was three years ago.

So I was sixteen years old. I wasn't exactly a beautiful girl. Never really was. My form was kinda off, I was skinny, had off-blue eyes, a freckled face, wasn't into fashion like the thousands of other LA teens, and had shoulder-length blonde hair, the most beautiful thing about me. I was tall, too, and had dyslexia and ADHD, which means I couldn't read well, because the dyslexia, and also made school a pain. I also had a hard time focusing on things. I was also into different things. While the other teenagers were into the new trend, Beiber and what-she-did-last-Saturday, I was into paintball and archery, heavy metal music, although I have a deep respect for classical, and when I get lonely, I go outside, start a bonfire and just sit there. It makes me think of my mom for some reason, and when I think of her, I feel like every problem vanishes. Every test I knew I would fail, every book I had to finish for a report but knew I couldn't, it didn't seem like much at that moment. Almost like I could feel my mom's hand on my shoulder, letting me know it was ok, that somehow, even though there was no evidence, she still cared about me. Somewhere, somehow, she still loved me, and that was all that mattered.

I loved that feeling.

So back to my story. It began at the school. I was part of a group with learning disabilities, with a separate group of teachers that hopefully would be able to help us and work at our level. It rarely worked that way, and most times the kids' grades dropped and they got into trouble. It was a nice idea the school had, but it was failing. Miserably.

I was on the bus, on my way with twenty other kids to another hopeless day of school. "Thank god it's Friday", as my peers would say. I had too much on my mind. I had a math test that day. It didn't help when my friend Avril boarded the bus. She was my age, sported an punk-ish haircut, dyed black then purple in parts, always had her face in her iPod and had dark clothes and a short skirt that all didn't go together right and didn't cover much of her stomach. Why does she hang out with the dyslexic freak? I have no idea. For three years she's been my friend. She has other friends too, but hey, her even talking to me means something.

"Hey girl." she said and plopped down on the aisle seat next to me. "Okay, so you know that girl Katie Dennsworth?"

"Hi to you too, Avril." I said, trying to remember the answer to question twelve.

"I said hi." she said.

"'Hey girl', then a bunch of whatever, isn't exactly a hello." I smiled.

"Well," she said, pulling out her iPod, "that's a bit picky, don't you think?"

"Any tests today?" I tried. She rolled her eyes and flung her head back, getting her purple dyed hair in my face. "English. That is going to be a sucky test. Crammed in some study time last night."

"That bad?"

"Worse. A lot worse. I was hoping to get my mind off it."

"How do you think it's going to go?"

"I don't wanna think about it." she sighed.

"I have a math today. That is a hard test."

"I don't even want to think about English with dyslexia." she managed after a deep breath.

I shrugged. She knew I was dyslexic and was okay with it, but I hated the very thought. There in my room I had been the previous night working on the last few questions. The numbers and letters had gone all over the place on the page and upside-down. I hated tests.

"Well good luck." I sighed.

She snorted. "Miracle would be ideal."

Well, miracles happened that day, just not ideal ones.

After school I would be going to Avril's house for dinner. My dad was working late that night.

Let's just say my classes went...well. My grade...well I prefer not to talk much about it on any day. The rest of the school day went as usual. There were the usual group of popular girls who made fun of me and a few of the disabled kids. The classes went...well. I try my hardest, but overall I just do...well. Not much more than that, if you know what I mean.

Avril kept talking about this guy across from her in math class. I'd seen him. He had started coming to the school after winter break. Couldn't deny he was good-looking, but there was something about him that put me on edge. Avril introduced me to him. His name was Gavin. He had slick black hair, wasn't too tall, and had almost a Hispanic -looking face. Worse than good-looking, he was nice. So why did I not like him? Keep reading. Why did I tell you this? Keep reading.

So the bell rang and I was done with school for two and a quarter days. I walked out of the gates with my backpack hanging uncomfortably off one shoulder-the other strap was broken.

"Hey, wait up!" I heard Avril yell behind me.

Her house was only a few blocks from the school, so we were going to walk. She finally caught up to me and we walked to her house. I can't say I was fully prepared for what was about to happen, but it's like I always say. That is, if I had any good quotes, it would be.

What happened next I wasn't in any way prepared for. I was set on edge, but there was no distinct feeling that something terrible that would change my life was about to happen. Well, not much more needs to be said.

I got one warning, but didn't think to take it as such. Avril's family was somewhat wealthy, after her mom married a rich business man a few years after her birth. Who was her father? She doesn't really know. Her mom doesn't talk much about him. We're kinda alike like that. Remember that. That will be important later.

So anyway, they owned a large, hilltop, slightly Greek-looking house. It was _nice. _That hill was tall and steep. It was in a different part of town, one with grapevines, orange trees and other nice trees and plants and beautiful homes on top of hills. It was the place for rich people who wanted a house away-from-it-all. Well, we were walking up the hill, when suddenly, I got dizzy. I mean really dizzy. I never get dizzy. Well okay, there was that time I was getting treated for my asthma and the breathing treatment made me nauseous, but that was-heck, what am I talking about?

Then something else happened; it was almost like a Spirit passed me. I can't put my finger on what it was, but something formless yet with form, something there but not, and all I could think of to describe it is like when a car, or asphalt or something sits in the sun and the air above it starts to distort? Like a mirage but not? That's what it was like, but it was moving, and that's what all the air around me looked like. Only later would I find out what happened.

That was a warning, and actually something I had been hoping for for a long time...if only I could understand it.

"Chelsea, Chelsea, you alright?" Avril was repeating.

I hadn't noticed I was on the ground.

"Wha?" I tried to say. My mind was swimming in a badly polluted part of the ocean. "Yeah, I think so." I finally croaked, even though I thought I was going to puke.

"You sure?" Avril asked, then reached her hand out to me. "Here, let me help you up."

When she grabbed my hand, she hesitated, almost like somehow she knew what had happened. "What?" I asked, standing, trying to regain my equilibrium.

"I don't know...that just reminded me of the time..." She trailed off in thought. The only time I saw her do that was when she was talking to me about her dad that she never knew. She snapped out of it. "But you're sure you're okay?"

"Yeah." I lied, taking a huge gulp from my water bottle. I wasn't okay. I was freaked out. Stuff like that just doesn't happen to me. So that was my warning, but it didn't do much. A second later everything went back to normal. If you've gotten this far, good for you, because things only go downhill from here.

The rest of the walk was kind of a blur. Avril was going on about something on Twitter, but I couldn't focus. I was noticing little different things I hadn't noticed before. Like the ladybug on a leaf on the side of the sidewalk. Or the bird resting in an orange tree branch. Or the school bus racing up the hill behind us going maybe 70 miles an hour. That's fast for a school bus. Even worse; it was from our school. Even, even worse; we were on the right sidewalk. The bus came out of the left lane, into the right, up on the curb of the wrong side of the road and went right for us. I grabbed Avril's black sweatshirt and yanked on it. She yelped slightly, but turned to see the calamity about to befall us. What do we do? Get out of the way.

We jumped into a grove of orange trees. Guess who followed us? Right into the grove came the school bus. I turned around to see how far it was from us and wanted to see who was out to kill us. The figure behind the wheel was distorting. I couldn't get a clear look at his or her face.

As far as I could figure there were two possibilities: One drunk school bus driver was just by chance following us at high speed, or someone wanted us dead. I didn't have time to choose.

Avril was screaming. Me, I wasn't thinking straight, otherwise, I would've been doing the same, but I knew one thing; we needed to get to the top of the hill. I pulled Avril to the left, ducked under some trees, and right behind us, the bus tipped over into some trees. Then, it exploded. Go figure. But I was seriously enamored with the explosion. The heat of it on my skin let an impression in my mind I would never forget; being so close to death and yet missing it by a nose. This wouldn't be the last time I felt this. I turned around and saw the orange-black mushroom cloud explode into the air in a dance of heat and gas. My eyes filled with the flame, but Avril just kept running and screaming, completely ruining my moment. She couldn't even be the faithful sidekick who turns around to bring the hero back into reality, completing the scene. I waited, because I completely and blindly expected her to, but when I turned around and saw her staggering a few hundred feet ahead of me, I came back to my senses and started running.

Soon, she was up the hill. I was only a minute behind her. I had never realized she could run before. Her average speed was _text_. You know, the speed people go while they're on their phones. Ha! I just used there, they're and their in one sentence...fine, you don't care.

Both of us were panting. From the top of the hill, we could see the orange trees below, many of which on fire and the police, ambulance and firefighters already approaching the scene. My asthma started to act up. I swallowed it and willed myself to walk...a few feet to the nearest bench in the front of the main building for the winery and orange tree fields. Avril joined me...then started laughing hysterically.

"What in the name of Metallica are you laughing about?" I liked to use popular band names as curse words sometimes for fun. I wasn't having fun. It just felt natural.

"Don't you see?"

"Um, no not really!" I snapped sarcastically.

"We were probably just part of a movie."

I let that sink for a minute. Then I spat, "Wwhatt?" And pronounced it just like that.

"How long have you lived in Hollywood area?" she asked. I just glared at her. "They do this kind of stuff all the time."

"Explode school buses and kill teenagers." I said flatly. "Movie set accidents happen all the time. Besides, we're not technically dead. We probably just walked onto a movie set without realizing."

"But don't they do most of the explosion stuff in the computers?" She looked up...almost like she was thinking about it. "You know, like what is commonly referred to as 'movie magic'?"

She thought about that for a few more seconds. "You are really in a bad mood right now, aren't you." I flipped.

"That's it?"

"I can't expect to understand Hollywood!"

I was silent for a second. "I'm pretty sure they don't drive school buses into-um, orange fields."

"Well, when the new Jason Bourne movie comes out, I'm going to look for myself in the bus crash scene." I just rolled my eyes. Then I noticed an ugly cut on my arm, then I thought a little bit about how I'd just acted.

"I'm sorry." I told Avril.

"I know." She smiled slightly. "Let's get to my house. Maybe we can just take showers and pretend like this didn't happen...until the next Bourne movie comes out."

"You're impossible."

"It's incurable."

So we arrived at her gorgeous house. We were able to sneak in the front door and make our way upstairs. The house had a large entry room, a larger living area, a huge kitchen, and a ton of bedrooms and bathrooms. I won't try to explain it too much, but imagine a small mansion. Now imagine it Greek style. You know what it looks like.

Upstairs, we cleaned up a little, all things considered. We were dusty and had a couple scrapes and cuts, but that was okay. By the time we were finished and walked downstairs, Avril's mother was just walking in.

"Hey hon!" she said when she saw Avril. She gave her a hug, then gave me one too, happy to see us. She was dressed nicely in black pants and a dress shirt. She was a lawyer, was in her early forties but looked younger. A lot younger. "Did you see the bus crash?" she asked.

"Uh, yeah," Avril stammered, "we saw it as it was happening. Pretty wild, huh?"

"I just hope no one was hurt." Little did I know the bus crash was just the beginning of my problems.

A couple hours later, we heard the housekeeper call, "Dinner's on!" She was a middle aged, overweight woman who never failed to creep me out. Her name was simply Ms. Martha. I had talked to Avril about her before. She had no idea why her parents hired _her_. She said she thought her dad did it, but anyway, she had darker skin, not a very kind face, and messy brown hair. She gave me the willies. Her voice even sounded creepy.

A few hours into my visit, Avril's mom had to go to the office for a while. She had explained she needed to clear something up with a client, and her dad was working late, probably with my dad. They knew each other and worked together quite a bit. That left us all alone with Ms. Martha.

We ate a delicious meal of lasagna. She was creepy, but she could cook. "This is great, Ms. Martha." I said. She just smiled crookedly. Her dark brown eyes just stared down at me. I suddenly felt bad for complimenting her.

I was about to take a bite when she said, "Last you'll ever enjoy, dear." My forked stopped half way in my mouth. Something about not only what she said but the way she said it chilled me to the bone. Even Avril turned her head and looked at me, hoping she'd misheard her. I turned around, but Ms. Martha wasn't there.

"Avril?" I asked timidly.

"This isn't normal." She said flatly. Before we could even think about what was going on, a large beast broke through the kitchen window. It was the ugliest thing I'd ever seen.

It looked like a cross between a dog, a wolf, and an orc from Lord of the Rings. And it was huge. About twice the size of a Great Dane. It had long, gray fur, like a wolf, a long tail and legs like a dog, long claws maybe eight inches long each, hideous yellow teeth, two of which extended over its mouth like a Saber Tooth Tiger, and the next two to the inside were like fangs. It was snarling at me. In my view, there were two options: one, this thing escaped from a top secret cloning laboratory where an experiment had gone bad, or two, this thing purposely was sent to kill us.

I chose the latter.

I was paralyzed. My first thought was 'run', but something in me knew that wouldn't work. This thing would outrun me and rip into me. Could I fight? What would my weapon be? Where is Ms. Martha, and will she return? Is _she _some kind of wolf cloner? Well, I didn't have time to answer all those questions, because the beast charged us.

Avril screamed. I grabbed her and pulled her with me out of our stools we were sitting on at the countertop. We ducked underneath the stools. The whatever-it-was jumped over the stools and onto the counter. I was able to keep Avril under control. I mouthed _What's going on _to her, and she just shook her head to say she had no idea.

If we didn't think quick, we were going to be fresh game. I looked everywhere for a weapon. It wouldn't be long before it came under the stools and found us. It looked like many things, but dumb was not one of them. I looked on one of the counters. There was a wooden sheath for the kitchen knives. If I could grab one of the sharpest, I could injure the thing. I probably couldn't kill him, but at least it would give us time. I whispered to Avril, "I'm going to make a distraction. You're going to run under that table, I'm going to grab a-" But I wasn't quick enough. The thing came underneath the counter and snapped at me through a bar stool. Thank god, Avril went for the table. I went around the island and pulled a plate off the counter. It fell and shattered. The sound brought the beast to the other side. I made a break for the knives, my heart thumping in me faster than I thought possible. I grabbed the sharpest one I could find, but there was something strange about it. It was black. It shimmered in the kitchen light, and seemed to have a dark, evil aura about it. I didn't have time to examine it because the thing had found out it had been tricked. It came around the counter and looked me dead in the eyes. He charged.

I wielded my hopeless weapon. Imagine fighting a Triceratops with a BB gun. That's how I felt, but by instinct, I jumped and stabbed the thing in the head.

It whimpered and cried, and pawed at its head, but not for long. As I was about to run, it looked at me and snarled. It _hated _me. Then the weirdest thing happened. I looked over to the stovetop, then something in my mind clicked. Before I could do anything else, fire emerged from the stovetop and consumed the beast. It panicked. It ran wild around the house, then, something just as strange happened. It fell with a thud and turned to dust. I nearly fainted.

Avril started to come out, but too soon. Ms. Martha was back. She simply appeared next to me. I had my magic kitchen knife. She had a black sword about three feet long. Then, as she grinned at me her eyes turned blood red, her fingernails turned to talons and wings suddenly sprouted from her back. Well, that didn't look good.

For a moment, I wanted to believe that some Hollywood goofs were filming a movie, but I knew that wasn't true. She wanted me dead. She swung her sword at me. I ran. At least I wanted to, but when I opened my eyes, I wasn't running. I had blocked her ugly black sword with the bronze kitchen knife, but that didn't last long. She swung again and slashed my hand, making me drop the sword. I felt the blood rushing to my new cut, but there wasn't much time to think about that. She roared in my face and I tried to run, but tripped and fell. This was it. I was going to be killed by my best friend's housewife. How ironic.

Then, another interesting thing happened. A young man burst through the door-maybe about my age-, holding a long sword...even longer than Ms. Martha's. He ran to us and began to fight her. He slashed, she guarded, but I could already tell she was not as good of a sword fighter as he. He finally stabbed her in the chest, and just like the wolf, she dissipated before my eyes. He sheathed his sword and looked at me. "You okay?" he asked. What a question. I wanted to kill _him._

It was Gavin from school.

"Tell me what on earth is going on!" I said for the tenth time. Avril had finally come out from the table.

"Oh god, what just happened?" she said.

We were sitting in the living room on the couches while he paced the floor, saying some pretty weird stuff. I insisted we call 911, but Gavin kept insisting, "No! That will ruin everything!" Oh, and I had an intense asthma attack. I had already taken several treatments from my inhaler. I didn't know this guy well, but here he was in my friend's house after he'd just saved me from an angry psychotic housekeeper. And he won't talk.

Finally, he spoke to me. "Okay, I hate what I have to do, but you need to know. You two are in danger." That was it?

"Well duh!" I yelled at him. "We get attacked by a wolf and a dragon lady-"

"A Kindly One." He corrected, then winced. "Wait, what did you say?"

"A wolf and a dra-"

"You mean like a Hellhound?" He asked.

"I don't know, genius. You tell me!"

"A Kindly One with a hellhound. Interesting." Then he stared me dead in the eyes. "Please listen. I can help you. It will take a long time to explain, but you're in danger."

"Start explaining." I ordered.

He sighed. "I am on a mission. A quest. Normally a Satyr would be doing this kind of work, but being an intern I was chosen to give a mission like this a shot to prove myself. I am a half-blood, and in short, so are you two."

I looked up at him. _Half-blood? _

He continued. "This means you're special, but you're in terrible danger. I need to get you to safety. That's my mission"

Avril beat me to it. "Where's safety?" She asked timidly.

"New York." he replied, a gleam in his eye. "Camp Half Blood. We need to go, and fast. I've asked for backup, but I don't think there's time."

I thought about that. He looked at Avril. "When your parents get back, they won't even remember that there ever was a Ms. Martha. Normally half-bloods are found at a much younger age by monsters like your housekeeper. By some miracle you've been protected until this time, but you two are particularly strong now. You don't realize it yet, but you are growing in your strength, which will bring more stuff like this. Which is why I need to get you to New York." A question was lingering in my head. "You said you were a half blood. What exactly does that mean?"

He took a deep breath, then smiled and shook his head. "It's half god." Then he straightened. "I am Gavin, son of Apollos the Olympian."

"Wait," Avril asked, "Olympian as in...?"

"Mythology?" he answered. "Yes."

"That...is insanely cool." Avril said, smiling.

I was still freaking out. _So I'm half god?_

"Don't worry." Gavin told me. "You'll get used to it."


	2. Chapter 2

**Well, it comes back to this; me being my fun, nerdy self. Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving, and sorry for not updating sooner. This has been a crazy week, but anyway, here is chapter 2! Here are a couple shout-outs:**

**i am a fire jay; Just wanted to say I thought about you when I wrote this chapter. :)**

**Artemis3056: Yes, I am definitely continuing. It's only getting started. ;) By the way, I like your username. Artemis and Apollo are my two favorite Olympians. So anyway, God bless! Thanks for reviewing!**

**Chapter 2: We Hitch a Ride on the Lamborghini Horses**

Now I knew a dangerous truth; a truth that would be constantly sending me over the edge for the rest of my life. I was part god.

On one hand, I was like Avril, who was thinking it's super cool. Gavin likes her enthusiasm, but can't seem to figure out why she doesn't have dyslexia or ADHD, which he says is totally normal for half-bloods. On the other hand, I was freaking out. Being half god, or demigod, which I guess is the actual term, is going to be an insane challenge. Gavin describes it as dangerous and says we need to get to Long Island, New York ASAP. Me, I'm not too stoked about it.

"So we just leave everything and go to New York?" I asked him honestly.  
He thought about that for a second. "Yeah, pretty much. If we don't get you to safety soon-"  
"Yeah, yeah, I know, more possessed housekeepers and wolves."  
"We call them Kindly Ones." he smiled.  
"I can't just leave!" I said. "What about my dad, and Avril, your mom and stepdad, what, we just leave without another word?"  
Gavin sighed. "I know it will be hard, but it sounds to me like your dad already knows you're a half-blood. Avril, your mom probably does too. If you go, they'll be worried, but they'll know you're going somewhere safe."  
I just sat in silence for a minute. Then I finally gave in. "Say we go. When do we need to leave?"  
"I'd shoot for tomorrow at the latest. We'll need to go by plane."  
"It's that urgent?" Avril asked.  
"Believe me, you guys are very strong. You're in extreme danger."

At least this explains some of the weirder things that have happened in my life.

"You said earlier that no one would even know that Miss Martha existed. Why?" I asked.  
"Mist." Gavin replied. It's complicated, but humans see things differently than we see them. Half-bloods can see into more of the spiritual world. Humans only see things through a filter. That's why when we have stuff happen like World War II and the Cold War; people only see it as a war between humans, not between gods."  
Well, that was a lot to take in. "That's why I couldn't see the bus driver who tried to kill us."  
He nodded, like he knew what I was talking about. "That was probably Martha." Come to think of it, one of the new bus drivers at the school did look familiar.

"So we have to go?" I clarified.  
"If you want to be safe."  
I thought about it. I would have to leave my dad, my house, my world, but then I realized my dad no doubt wanted me to be safe. I had to do it. I didn't want to, but I had to. At least until I got a handle on what was going on. I looked to Avril. She thought about it and nodded at me.  
"We'll go." I told Gavin.  
He smiled. "Perfect. When can you be ready?"  
"Wait, you want to go now?" I asked. "I thought you said tomorrow."  
"I said tomorrow at the latest. One hour at the best."  
"Okay, we'll try. Where exactly are we going again?" I asked.  
"Camp Half Blood. It's a summer camp for demigods, but if you need to you can stay all year. I know it's not summer yet, but they'll take you in." I took a deep breath. This was going to be a long night.

Avril let me borrow a backpack and some clothes. Gavin gave us some cash, a few golden drachmas for "Olympian transactions", some stuff called Ambrosia and Nectar, which he said would restore us if we ever got hurt, and then he gave me the dark kitchen knife. I glared at him.  
"Martha was a Kindly One," Gavin explained, "a torturer from Hades-"  
"You mean like Hell?" I asked.  
"Well, yeah. You see, as Western Civilization moves, so does Olympus and Hades. Olympus is in New York. Hades is under Hollywood."  
I rolled my eyes. "That figures. But sorry, keep going."  
"Anyway, so naturally, her cooking utensils are evil. They might keep you safe from some monsters. Besides, it's good to have a weapon that can get rid of monsters. You can't kill them, you can only get rid of them for a while, but you need a magic weapon to protect yourself from them."  
"Great." I said. "So what happens if I meet something with a sword, shield and armor?" "Uh," Gavin stuttered, "well let's hope the evil aura keeps them away."  
That didn't sound too hopeful.  
"So all the Olympians are real then?" I asked. "Like, Zeus, Poseido-"  
He put a finger to his lips. "We need to be careful when we go around using names like that." He said quietly.  
"Why?" I asked.  
"I'll explain later, but yes."  
"So...if your dad is Apollos, who's my mom?"  
"We don't know unless our Olympian parent claims us."  
"But that always happens, right?" I asked.  
"Sometimes, sometimes not."  
I didn't like how that sounded, but I remembered something. I reached in my pocket and pulled out the picture of my mom. "Who does this look like?" I asked, showing him. In the picture she was wearing a red dress with her hair down.  
"Hard to say." he said. "Looks a little bit like Peresphone to me, but she's not one of the Twelve. It might be Demeter. I'm not sure. What was her name? Sometimes the gods use different names when interacting with mortals."  
I thought about that. "I'm not exactly sure." He nodded. "Well, maybe she'll claim you."

Avril wrote a letter to her mom, reassuring her that she was somewhere safe. I decided I should write something for my dad for Avril's mom to give to him, but what on earth would I say? Honestly, I was pretty mad that he had never told me this before. I wrote something like this: I'm in New York at Camp Half Blood. I will call when I get there. Anything else would not have been very pretty. I put it in a yellow envelope, addressed it to my dad, and laid it next to Avril's note. I slung the backpack over my shoulder and walked out of Avril's house with her and Gavin.

It was maybe eight o' clock when we left.  
"So I could drive us to LAX, if we have a car." I said.  
"No worries." Gavin said. "I have something a little better."  
He snapped his fingers and said something in what I instantly knew was Greek. At first, nothing happened, but then I heard the sound of horses' hooves. It got louder...and louder...until the sound shook the ground. Then, two horses came up the hill at high speed...maybe even 90 miles per hour. They raced along with a Greek chariot behind them. They skidded to a stop in front of Gavin. The horse to the left was pitch black. The horse to the right was tan with orange spots. Both stomped the ground in anticipation. I loved horses, and whenever I got the chance to, I rode them bareback. Funny thing was these horses weren't reigned to the chariot. It was almost as if they were somehow magically connected to it.

"Chelsea, Avril, meet Balius and Xanthus." He walked over and patted both on the backs. "How well do you know your Greek Mythology?" He asked.  
"Eh, not too good." I admitted.  
"Um, wait, wait," Avril stammered, "these are Achilles' horses, right? The ones he used in the Trojan War?"  
"Bingo." Gavin said. "They're supernatural, immortal, formed by Poseidon himself."  
"But...how'd you get your hands on these guys?" she asked.  
He paused for a second. "I prayed to my father for something, anything to help me succeed. He hooked me up. I'm allowed to use these guys for short distances."  
"That's awesome!" Avril said, truly excited.  
"Do you like horses?" Gavin asked us both.  
"I...uh," Avril stammered, "never rode a real horse."  
"I love them." I answered.  
He smiled. "I will have to let you ride them when we get to Camp, but for now, pile into the chariot."  
"Do you like horses?" I asked as I stepped into the chariot. He smiled so big I thought his face might explode.  
"Love them!" He boasted. "Well, considering my master is a Centaur."  
"You mean the half-goat-half-man?" Avril asked.  
Gavin laughed. "No, no, no, that's a Satyr. A Centaur is half-horse-half-man."  
"Who's your master?" Avril asked.  
"Chiron."  
She thought about it for a minute. "Wait, you don't mean-the trainer of heroes?"  
"One and the same."  
"Are you going to be a hero?" Avril asked.  
His face went a little red. "I hope so. I'm not the only one he trains, I just do some different stuff for him, like this mission."  
"That's awesome!" Avril said.  
I rolled my eyes. Avril was acting like this whole thing was real.

As soon as we were in the chariot, Gavin said some more Greek words, and then the horses started to growl. Then mumble and groan. Then, they almost made a motor sound. Then it got louder and sounded more and more like a motor, then the chariot, which had once been a beautiful blue and red, started to change. The interior changed from metal to leather upholstery, and the horses morphed into the front of a car. Not just any car, either. A Lamborgini Veneno Roadster. 4.5 million dollars.  
"Zero to sixty in three seconds." Avril said to herself, impressed.  
The engine revved, as if the horses were laughing.  
Gavin laughed. "0 to 200 in three seconds." Avril's expression completely changed.  
"So..." I said, freaking out a little again, "you say some weird words from some ancient language as a non-specific example, and horses turn to a luxury car?"  
"Well, with these horses. We do it so that people don't even possibly see through the mist, even though that rarely happens. And technically it can be any car you want, although from what I've heard they aren't into Hondas."  
"Of course." I said, hanging onto the seats as he said few more words, and then looked at me.  
"Words have a lot of horsepower. Get it? Horsepower?" Then he said something else in Greek. We took off like a rocket.

Let's just say I didn't exactly expect him to go 0 to 200 in the first few seconds, but what the heck, I guess that's the way it goes. The G-force nearly ripped my head off. I was brought back to the seat, not able to move a muscle. My skin was as white as my knuckles holding the armrests. Avril (who was sitting in the backseat of what's normally a two-seater car) was loving it. Gavin, who was riding in what would be the driver's seat, except for no steering wheel, took one look at me and started laughing. "Takes some time to get used to, huh?" I nearly lost my lasagna.

In a matter of seconds we pulled into LAX and started to slow. I finally regained my mobility, but didn't let go of the seat. When we finally stopped in front of the terminal, we all got out, Gavin acting like it was the most normal thing, Avril looking like she had just gotten off a roller coaster and wanting to go again, and me, stumbling out of the car, looking for a restroom.  
"Don't worry." Gavin told me. "The effects will wear off soon."  
I just stared at him, dazed.  
He turned and patted the car on the hood. He spoke to the two horses in Greek, talking in baby-tones. Somehow I knew he was saying, "Good Balius! Who's a good boy? And Xanthus! Who's my beautiful black stallion?" He said a few more words of instruction, and the car drove off, back to 200 MPH and disappeared in a flash of light.  
"Okay," I said, "that was actually kinda cool."  
He grinned. "There's more where that came from."

I wondered how we were going to get our weapons through the metal detector. Gavin did something really cool: he pressed the center of the hilt of his sword and it turned into a ring with Greek inscription on it and a yellow jewel in the center, but what I would do with my evil kitchen knife, I didn't know.  
Gavin seemed to read my mind. "Don't worry about the knife. The mist does its work well." He was right. When our stuff went through the metal detector, I saw my knife on the screen, but the guards didn't.

After an hour or so, we had our tickets for a non-stop to New York, were cleared by security and made our way to a coffee shop to get milkshakes and coffee while we waited for our flight. I needed some caffeine to stabilize my nerves. Afterwards, we made our way to our flight, boarded with little trouble, and soon we were off.

But even all of this could not have prepared me fully for what was about to happen.


	3. Chapter 3

**So here's chapter three! This is personally one of my favorite chapters, so I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. :) I know it's long. I tried to split it but couldn't think of a way to do it right.**

**Thank you guys so much for reviewing and for your nice comments! You all really made my day! :D Let me send a few shout-outs before we get started:**

**pnut9282: Thank you so much for saying that and for following! :D**

**Wishheart01: Thank you very much for reviewing, your compliments and for favoriting! I wanted to answer a couple of your questions about my Fanfiction. I often get Apollos, who was a 1st century Christian and Apollo mixed up, but I realized that last week and have mentally fixed it. :) And yes, there will be some of the seven and some other campers you would recognize from the books later on in the FF.**

**So thanks again guys. Really, your encouraging comments mean ALOT. :) God bless! ~E-Sharp**

**Gavin Becomes a Hipster**

I sat slightly uncomfortably on the plane.

I was finally starting to get the idea that there might be some truth to all this. But that only made me more scared.

We were over Arizona. I tried to start a conversation with Gavin, who was sitting in the middle of three seats in the middle of the plane, with me on one side and Avril on the other, sleeping.

"So..." I tried. "You said a satyr would normally do something like this? I mean bring two half-bloods to New York?"  
He nodded. "Actually, a satyr actually discovered you two, but Chiron pulled him somewhere else to another potential half-blood. Then I was sent to get you guys."  
I just stared straight forward. I had so many questions. "So what's camp like?" I asked quietly.  
"It's awesome. It's where half-bloods train. There's an arena, an archer's range, a climbing wall that pours lava, you'll love it."  
"Does anyone do paintball?" I asked.  
He looked at me. "You do paintball?"  
"Love it." I said.  
He smiled. "I've been trying to convince Chiron to start paintball wars at camp. He's the activities director."  
"So what's your story?" I asked after a minute.  
He looked like he was about to answer when he looked out the window. His expression changed from happy to concerned, then to worried. He swore. "Avril better wake up." he said quickly.  
"What is it?" I asked.  
He ignored me and looked out the window again. "Oh my gods." Gavin muttered.  
I shot him a double take. "'Gods?"  
"If there's more than one, it makes sense to say it in the plural sense, doesn't it?" he said quickly, not looking at me.  
"Well, I guess," I had never really thought about it before, "but 'oh my gods' just sounds cheesy."  
"Python." he whispered desperately.  
"Who?" Then I looked out the window. I blinked. I could've sworn there was a red, glowing mass passing along the right side of the plane, then it was gone. Then, passengers started to notice. Many peered out the window, wondering what it could've been. Then, all Hades broke loose.

There was a loud crash and the sound of people shrieking up ahead. I, with everyone else in our section, stood instantly. "What is it?" I asked Gavin desperately. Avril was up now, looking around at the mass of people panicking. The plane began to lose altitude. Smoke and flame poured into the cabin. I felt the air escaping my lungs. We were losing air pressure.

The captain's voice came over the intercom, ordering people to return to their seats and apply their oxygen masks, which had just been dropped.  
"There's no time." Gavin told me. "It's a dragon, the dragon my father killed."  
"Wait, what?" I asked. Then, I saw it. Outside the plane I saw it fly by. It was a giant dragon with red scales that created their own light in the night sky. It had a flat back and belly, a tail with spikes, like a dinosaur, and long, ugly black wings. Oh yeah, and it breathed fire.

The plane was losing altitude...fast. I knew the dragon was after us. "It's ripped into the plane." Gavin said. "Everyone on that part of the plane is dead." Everything was happening too fast. People were panicking. There wasn't time to get an evacuation organized before the dragon ripped his talons into another part of the plane. I could hear the explosion behind me and feel the plane shake. The dragon was on top of the plane, rocking it back and forth. Mixed in with the sounds of explosions were people screaming and praying. Then, the dragon found us.

Gavin, Avril and I were on the floor, fighting to breathe and clutching the seats for dear life with the oxygen masks around our faces. Then, I saw the beast's long black talons rip into the plane. My eyes went wide as it ripped the side of the plane off like the metal was just tissue paper. At this point, crashing didn't sound too bad. At least we would have had a hope of survival. The way things looked, this beast would stop at nothing to kill us. Its large ugly head looked in. Its green, reptilian eyes peered through the smoke, searching for us. His breath...well, let's just say someone forgot to brush. Air pressure dropped, and many people even flew out of the plane, but some were able to hold on to something, and thanks to the oxygen masks, we were able to stay alive. I looked out at the lights of some Arizona city shining in the darkness.

I racked my brain. How do you kill a dragon in mythology? Bard killed Smaug in The Hobbit by shooting a lucky arrow into the soft side of the dragon's belly. Would a kitchen knife do as well? I thought harder. Hercules killed a Hydra by cutting off the head and then scorching the stump so two didn't grow in its place.

Suddenly it clicked: fire. Could it be possible to fight fire with fire? The dragon circled the belly of the falling plane, coming in for the kill. He had seen us. Or smelled us.

I knew if we didn't do something to stop him, many more people would be killed. I looked at Gavin. He was thinking hard. Avril was trying to stay calm, but I saw fear in her eyes. Suddenly, I knew what needed to be done. I stood up. The smoke was gone. Then Gavin stood up, and I realized he was still in smoke. Somehow, there was a small bubble around me that made me able to breathe fresh air, even in the smoke. I pulled off the oxygen mask. Nothing but fresh air, even at a higher pressure. Slowly, holding on tight to the seats, I walked closer to the giant cavity. Gavin put a hand on my shoulder. I gave him a look to say I knew what I was doing. He looked worried, but he nodded and backed off. The dragon was coming back around. Its hideous eyes looked at me, but I stood up to him. Somehow, I found the courage, without a plan, to stand up to the dragon that a god had killed, but I knew I couldn't stare it down. It opened its mouth and fire and brimstone poured out.

I closed my eyes, preparing for the blast. It was over. My life was over. I was about to be killed by a beast I didn't know or believe existed hours ago, but as I stood there, nothing happened. I didn't die. On the contrary; I felt a surge of power rush through me, like I could take Python down with my bare hands. I opened my eyes. There was orange liquid all around me. I blocked it like a shield, also protecting everyone on board from it. It was hitting me full force, but I couldn't feel it besides the strength it seemed to give me. No, wait, it wasn't liquid. It was fire. The dragon was firing its best blast at me, and I was unharmed. I looked in my bag slung around my neck for my kitchen knife. The fire stopped and the beast shrieked. In a moment, I calculated the angles the best I could and threw the knife. Just after I threw it, there was a huge explosion of light in front of me. I turned around and saw Gavin. He had his hands outstretched. He had made the light, completely blinding the dragon while the knife ran its course. It hit Python in the neck. It shrieked and wailed, making horrible sounds. It was then I realized...I was on fire, but didn't feel a thing.

I knew what I had to do. How did I know? I guess you could call it a gut thing, but to this day I still don't know for sure. I concentrated. Somehow, I willed the fire to shoot from my body at the dragon. The dragon became engulfed in flames and blood spurted from its neck. The fire actually began to take its toll on him, combined with the fact that he was losing blood. Before long, Python began to fall out of the sky, but he didn't hit the ground. Instead, he turned to dust that flew through the air under the plane. I turned. Gavin and Avril were dazed. I mouthed Good work to Gavin. Somehow, I wasn't on fire anymore, and my clothes weren't even singed. Nobody on the plane saw. I imagine they never even saw the dragon through the mist, but we saw what happened. I walked back over, holding on to the seats, and huddled with Gavin and Avril. The plane was still going down. And fast.

There isn't much about the crash I remember. A few things that stuck out, like the captain on the intercom giving instructions to whoever survived. The initial impact was unlike anything I had ever experienced. If we weren't secured, our necks would've been broken from the impact. After the initial crash from a steep angle, the plane flipped over, banging everyone on the inside around quite a bit. None of us broke anything, but were cut up pretty bad. Somehow we'd survived a crash on a plane that had its entire side removed by a dragon...and saved a lot of people with us. Injured, granted, but their lives were intact. How? I never could explain that, either.

So after a few minutes, we stood up, and after a few more, found our bearings, grabbed our carry-on bags, and exited the plane through the gaping hole. In one direction were the lights of a small town, probably in New Mexico. We didn't know where else to go, and Gavin said it would not be a good idea to be found by emergency workers, so we staggered towards the town.

No one talked on the way into the city. It was a few miles, so it was quite a while of just pure silence. When we got into the city, we found an all-night-check-in hotel and checked into a suite. Avril and I in one room, Gavin in the other.

"So, the light thing," I asked while we walked up the stairs to our rooms, "how did you do that?"  
He looked at me like I had lost it. "'The light thing.'" he mimicked me. "The fire thing, how did you do that?"  
I hadn't thought too much about it.  
"Do I get superpowers?" Avril asked.  
"A lot of people's powers are more in their mind, like the daughters of Athena are extremely wise." He said it flatly, expressionless, like he was still trying to figure out what had just happened.  
He looked at me. "My dad is the god of light." he said, still thinking. "I noticed you needed a diversion, so I gave it to you. Otherwise, the dragon would've knocked that knife out of his way. Believe me, I know."  
I wasn't exactly sure what that meant. My mind was still going a thousand miles an hour, like Gavin's and Avril's, I imagine. Then, it seemed like something clicked with him. "Unless..." he said, but trailed off. I didn't bother to ask.

We walked into our rooms with nothing but our backpacks and the clothes on our backs.  
"Can I ask you an honest question?" I asked Gavin quietly.  
"Sure."  
"You talk about your dad like he's great. Do you ever feel any resentment towards him at all? I mean, I don't know your story, but my mom just brought me into this world and left. Don't you ever feel, I dunno, abandoned?"  
He took a shaky breath, like he wasn't exactly prepared for that one. "It's a tempting thought." he admitted, quietly. "I've been at camp for six years now, and when I first came, I wondered that. I wondered what kind of dad just leaves his kid. Then, he claimed me. That meant the world to me. I finally not only knew who my dad was, I knew he cared enough about me to claim me as his own son. I also knew who I was. Another thing I realized is that when an Olympian claims you as his child, they watch you. When you pray, they answer. Sometimes it's yes, sometimes it's no, and sometimes it's wait and see. It can be tempting to think that way, but when I feel like that, I think back to the night Apollo accepted me as his son. I felt so perfect, so accepted, like nothing in the world could separate me from my father."  
I nodded. I didn't notice my eyes watering. That's how I wanted to feel, but right now, I just felt like a no-good piece of junk, but maybe he was right. Maybe it's only a matter of time before my mom claims me.

Who am I kidding?

"But seriously," Gavin said, "That was pretty cool what you did today."  
I smiled and shrugged. "No problem, I guess. You too."

That was a long night. I rarely sleep well in hotels. After waking, Avril met up with us in our room. Gavin had been collecting research all night on his tablet and had even snuck away to a FedEx to print some stuff. He had a bunch of papers laid out before him on a table.  
"Well, obviously we know the skies aren't safe now," he explained, "so we'll have to continue on foot."  
"Why are these monsters after us?" I asked.  
"Most monsters just have a hate and attraction to us half-bloods. Plus, I've gotten the feeling there's something going on in Olympus that is turning up the heat." He stopped for a moment. "We need a plan. Any ideas?"  
"Could we rent a car?" Avril asked. He shrugged. "Not a bad idea."  
The television set in the room was blaring. A young woman was doing a report at the plane crash site. "Last night around 12:37 in the morning, a 757 airplane in route from Los Angeles to New York crashed three miles outside of Farmington, New Mexico. There are unconfirmed numbers of dead and missing people, but there are many survivors. Police are labeling this a terrorist attack, which witnesses say was conducted by a man and two women, no older than college age." Every head in the room whipped around to the television set. "It has been confirmed by witnesses that these terrorists did have weapons aboard the plane. It would seem that three explosives were detonated on the plane in three sections. These terrorists have not been identified yet, but Police Chief John Trawson assures that they will be identified as soon as the police know anything."  
Gavin swore in Ancient Greek. I didn't know exactly what he said, but I was sure it was pretty bad. "We have to leave town before we're identified."  
"But that wasn't us!" Avril said. Gavin had already stood and started packing up his stuff.  
"Sometimes the mist works too well. Just our luck." He picked up a piece of paper printed from Google Maps. "This is where we need to get to."  
I took it and studied it. "Why Houston?"  
"It's near the Gulf coast. We have allies there."  
"Who?"  
"A Cyclops." he said, taking the photo from me and packing it in his duffel. "I ran into him once on my way to camp. He's friendly towards half-bloods. We can get weapons from him. We'll need them, believe you me."  
"What kind of weapons?" I asked.  
"Celestial bronze weapons." he replied. "They can't harm mortals, but they can kill monsters. He may even be able to hook us up with some magic items."  
"Magic items?" I asked.  
He pointed to his ring.  
"Okay," Avril said, "how do we get there?"  
"There's no railroad, no interstate bus, so it looks like we'll be renting." He looked at me. "You'll drive, since you're the only one with a driver's license." I nodded.

After ten minutes, we checked out and walked across town to the airport and car rental. We rented a nice compact and after a stop at a convenience store for breakfast, we were on our way. It was 9:00 AM. We only had one problem. The police had already started their man-hunt, even though we hadn't been identified. On our way out of the city, we saw the highway patrol checking all the cars coming out. We got stuck in a small line.  
"Ideas?" I asked.  
"Just keep going." Gavin said, putting on fake glasses that made him look like a hipster. He handed Avril something. It was a blanket. "Wrap that around your head like a turban. Avril obeyed. She looked so weird in the almost rebellious-looking clothes and a turban I had to stifle a laugh, but I got the feeling that was the idea.

When we finally pulled up, the cop asked for my license. I handed it to him, along with the registration for the rented vehicle.  
"Who's with you?" he asked.  
"My relatives."  
He eyed me suspiciously. "Out of school today?"  
I sighed. "Had to take them to Houston. They have some sort of conference there or something."  
He just nodded. "I'll need to do a search." He said. We all stepped out while he did a cursory check of the car. I was thankful the mist stopped him from finding my knife.  
"You guys got any identification?" he asked the two.  
"Uh, not with me," Gavin said, checking his pockets. "Will you take my Hipster Club Membership card?" he asked, sounding so honest I even wondered if he had one. The police officer just waved him off. He looked at Avril, who just shook her head shyly.  
We got back in the car, and the officer leaned in and said, "Tell your relatives to enjoy the conference." I smiled and nodded, and he waved me through. As soon as we were out of earshot, I laughed hysterically.  
"'Hipster Club Membership?'" I asked. "You couldn't do better than that?"  
He pretended to be hurt, then pulled out a card with his Hipster face on it and the club title. "This took some time to make." he said. I laughed some more.

The drive seemed to last forever. Gavin promised me when it got dark he'd take over, because he didn't have a "mortal drivers license".  
"Is there any other kind of license?" I asked him. He struggled to pull his wallet out from his pocket, and handed me a card that said, Olympus; Driver's/Chariot Driver's License. Might come in handy, I thought. The seventeen-hour drive just wasn't going fast enough, and if you looked out your window, maybe you'd see an occasional ghost town or city, but for the most part, desert and prairie fields. Not much to write home about, and after a night of near-death experiences and little sleep, I was exhausted. I made a stop at Starbucks whenever we came into a decent-sized city.

After lunch at McDonalds and dinner at a Taco Bell, Gavin offered to switch with me. I agreed instantly. Unfortunately, I knew I wouldn't sleep well. Avril had fallen asleep in the back seat, and I was riding shotgun. "So your mom, do you talk to her often?"  
His expression darkened a little. "No, not really." he said. "I sorta grew up with my grandparents in Oregon until a satyr found me and broke the news that I was a half-blood. I was eleven. So that was that. I left home and worked my way south, to Houston, then back up to New York. And after quite a bit of training, Chiron took me under his wing, and here I am."  
I nodded, but didn't notice myself drifting off. I forced myself awake, but apparently he noticed my struggle. "Just sleep." he said. "Get some rest." Amazingly, I did.

Gavin woke me up the next morning. "Sorry," he apologized, "but we're here."  
I had been to Houston once. It was an amazing place. I wanted so badly to go to the NASA museum, but Gavin remained focused. Soon we were at one of the beaches. Gavin parked and got out. He stood on the empty beach. It was Sunday. He looked around, as if looking for something.  
Then, his eyes widened, and he got back in the car. "I remember now." he said. "This way."  
He drove down the street to a building with one of those Medieval shows, like when the guys dress up in armor and stuff and have a battle? Like that. Gavin stopped the car.  
"This is it?" Avril asked, still waking up.  
"Yup." Gavin said. "Just stay close to me. These guys can be tricky."  
I had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but I didn't ask. We walked up to the gift shop. There was a janitor on the inside, and a clerk working at the register. There was a show that night, so they were cleaning and organizing, and the door was open. The clerk looked up at us as we came in. He was a big, muscular guy in a tank top and black jeans, and dull-colored but piercing eyes. I couldn't tell what the janitor looked like. He had a baseball cap tucked low over his face, but he looked pretty muscular himself.  
"The store's technically closed." the clerk said in a gruff voice.  
"The door was unlocked. The sign even says open." Gavin said.  
The clerk scowled. "Whadaya kids want?" he asked. "Armor?"  
"Not exactly dressed for a medieval, show, are we?" Gavin snarled.  
The man seemed to growl. "I said, what-do-you-want?" He said it a little more intensely now. "I don't got all day, especially for a couple snotty nosed punks like you."  
"I'm here to see the Doctor." Gavin said briskly.  
The man looked up. "Do ya got an appointment?"  
"Tell him it's an old friend." He gave Gavin a suspicious look, as if trying to remember who he was, and walked into a back room. I walked around the store, looking at all the amazing armor for sale. Wooden swords, metal swords, clubs, nothing that would be potentially lethal but stuff that could seriously hurt. They had some pretty sick stuff. The janitor looked up at me. I met his eyes...or eye. Wait, what? I took a closer look. He smiled crookedly, but he looked kind. I focused on seeing through the mist, but then the big guy returned.  
"He'll see you." He said, and pointed to the back door, opening to a long hallway.

We walked down the fluorescent lit hall, and when we reached the end, there was a staircase. A long, dark staircase, with little light at all. When we got to the bottom, the only light we had was the faint glow of the fluorescents far above. In front of us was an old looking door. Gavin knocked hard and confidently, something I would've had trouble doing. The door opened, although who opened it was unclear. Gavin walked in, so we followed. Avril hung onto my shoulders. When we were all in, the door shut. The only light in the room was a burning candle in the center. Then, we heard footsteps and talons scraping against stone. The footsteps got closer on the other side of the candle, then the beast showed himself, but the candle only lit his head, which was large, ugly, with one eye in the center of his forehead staring at us. He roared in our faces.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey guys!**

**I am really sorry it's taken me so long to get this chapter up. The last few weeks have been pretty chaotic, so please forgive me. :)**

**I have an announcement. In a few weeks I will be opening up for you to submit an OC. I will post the rules in a few chapters, but just a heads up for ya. :D**

**Oh, and Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!**

I Become a Cat Person

Part of me wanted to scream, but when he started laughing a hilarious, honest laugh, I was restrained. Then, all the lights came on, making me shield my eyes as they adjusted.  
"GAAAVIN!" The Cyclopes yelled.  
"Hey, 'Doctor'!" Gavin said happily.  
The 'Doctor' walked over and gave Gavin a huge bear hug. I looked around the room. It was a huge workshop. The Doctor finally let go of Gavin and stood back.  
"Let me get a look at you! My gods, you've grown so much! Why don't you write every once in a while?"  
"What?" Gavin said smiling and laughing. "I just sent you an Iris message last week!"  
"Ha!" The cyclopes roared. "You know it's not the same! Ah, by Zeus himself, it's great to see you!"  
"It's great to see you too, Lonnie."  
The cyclops looked at us. He was big and muscular, had one green eye in the center of his forehead and wore an XXXXL tank-top and black shorts.  
"Who's this?" he asked.  
"Avril, Chelsea, this is Lonnie," Gavin introduced, "also referred to as 'The Doctor'. Lonnie, Avril and Chelsea."  
"It's great to meet ya!" he said, gripping our hands tightly and shaking them. "Half bloods?" he asked Gavin.  
"Yep."  
"Well now, I suppose you're going to New York?" he asked. We nodded. "Ah. Wonderful. Well I suspect you came for supplies then, but first, let me give you a tour of my workshop."  
And what a workshop! It extended forever, all the way under the stadium, the walls lined with weapons made of a glowing bronze and other strange items. He showed us his welding stations; one for swords, one for shields, one for bows, and then one for magic items, which was completely different than the other stations. Lonnie went along, showing us different things and pointing out stuff, but when we came to his hall of fame, I was completely blown away.  
"This is a collection of weapons I have both created and collected over the last two thousand years." One sword had a hilt in the shape of a dragon, lined with rubies up the blade and in the hilt, with a matching shield with emeralds, then there were many swords that were broken up and destroyed. I couldn't help but wonder where all these blades had been, what battles they had seen.

At the end of the tour, he took us back to the front.  
"Well, who are your lucky parents?" he asked us.  
"Well, uh," I said, "we haven't exactly been claimed."  
He looked me square in the eye. "I have just the thing for ya." He turned and started going through the labels on the walls, searching for the right weapon. "Aha!" he cried out at last, "You're an archer, no?" he asked.  
I nodded. "How did you-"  
"Bah, I know an archer when I see one! They are built differently. One with wisdom can see the difference between a born sword fighter and a born archer, and so does the person. They will find archery simple, and sword fighting hard." Well, he was right about that. I could never get sword fighting. He pulled something off a far wall and brought it over. It was a bow.  
"Silver." he said. "Hold it." I took it from him. It was definitely silver, but I couldn't believe how light it was. A dragon was painted up the silver in blood red. Wait a minute... "Dragon blood. It's embedded in the silver. Very, very challenging to do, even for Cyclopes."  
"It's so-"  
"Light?" he said, smiling. "This is very special silver. Only Cyclopes' at the bottom of the ocean can get their hands on it. Very hard for me to get my hands on it, but I know where to get it when I need it."  
He handed me a leather quiver of arrows. It matched the bow with a dragon painted up it. It had six arrows in it. "You will never run out, so no need to worry. The tips of the arrows are celestial bronze, so you can get bad monsters, but remember, they are harder to kill monsters with than swords. You will need a perfect lethal shot."  
I pulled one out. The tip seemed to glow.  
"It's name, in English, is Rebel. Use it wisely." He smiled at me, like he had just entrusted me with something he had put blood, sweat and tears into at one point.  
Then he looked up, like he had just remembered something. He ran over to his knives section. "And...I believe this is yours." He pulled a small knife of the wall. It was Ms. Martha's kitchen knife. "Who's is this?" he asked, holding it up.  
"What? But that was...how..." I stuttered.  
"All magic weapons come to a hero or a monster one way or another, but since most monsters hate celestial bronze, usually the darker weapons like these fall into bad hands. It's just good I got lucky enough to find it. I looked a few things up on...ah, the internet? Yes, the internet, and guessed it was yours. This one traveled fast. I cleaned it and sharpened it. It's stygian iron. It will do good." I believed it. It had already killed a Dragon. "I made a sheath to accompany it as well." He handed it to me. It was metal, with a dragon on it. I guess I was dragon themed.

He walked over to Avril. He lifted up her arm and studied it, then sniffed her forehead. "Not much of a sports person, are you?" he asked. "Well, let me see what I can find in the means of magic items." He ran back over to another section, and started rummaging through some stuff. "Hmmm...no, never do. Never do." He mumbled. "Aha! Perfect!" He trotted back over and handed her a red flash drive, the one where there's a switch you slide to plug it into a computer.  
"This...a flash drive?" Avril said.  
Lonnie laughed. "Open it."  
She slid the switch, and the flash drive morphed into a long, red tinted sword, maybe 18 inches long. She touched a large jewel in the hilt and it morphed back into a flash drive.  
Lonnie looked at Gavin. "That ring holding up?" he asked with a smile.  
Gavin lifted up his hand for him to see. "'Worked like a charm."  
The Cyclopes smiled. "Oh, yes, one more thing for Carrie."  
"Chelsea." Gavin corrected.  
"Ah, yes. I'm terrible with names." He ran back over to the spot he had gotten Avril's items from, and came back with a ring. It looked a little bit like Gavin's, but his had a yellow ring in the center. This one's was red. "For you. This ring's power is based on the one who wears it. Use it wisely." I nodded. He handed me the ring and I slipped it on. "There," Lonnie said with a gleam of satisfaction. "All armed and ready to go!"  
"Just one more thing;" Gavin said, "I was hoping maybe you had some advice about where to go next."  
"Yes, yes, of course." He walked over to one end of the workshop, and we followed. There was a map on the wall of the U.S.  
"I'd avoid Louisiana." He said to himself. "Bayou area. Many monster." He thought some more. "If I were you, I'd stay out of this southern area altogether." He pointed to the southern states. "If I were a half blood, I'd go north. It's a bit out of the way, but there are many monsters between here and New York. I'd go north to, this place-" he pointed to Missouri, "-then continue east."  
"Great." Gavin said. "Thank you Lonnie. We have a long drive ahead of us, so we'd better be going."  
Lonnie shook his head. "Half bloods, always running around. Always busy. You're no better than mortals!"  
Gavin laughed and shook Lonnie's hand.  
"Good luck, friends." Lonnie said. On our way out he called, "And Gavin! Don't be gone for too long this time."  
He smiled. "Will do!" Then Gavin stopped, remembering something. "Hey Lonnie?"  
"Yeah?"  
"You said you did some stuff on the internet. How did you know the knife was ours?"  
Lonnie looked as if he was trying to remember. "There was a page with a plane crash and your name. I, as you would say, put two and two together."  
Gavin nodded uneasily. "Thanks, man."  
And with that, we left The Doctor's workshop.

"Great." Gavin said as soon as we were in the car. "We've been identified. We're fugitives." I was in the driver's seat. I started the car. "We need to stay out of the big cities and try not to attract attention." he continued. Perfect. I can add "known fugitive" to the list of things I've accomplished.

We decided to take Lonnie's advice and started on our way to Missouri, avoiding the southern states, but unfortunately, we were already in a monstrous area, and no matter how hard I floored the gas pedal, we couldn't get out of there fast enough.

As we drove through traffic in downtown Houston, I got the feeling something was terribly wrong. I looked at Gavin. He turned on the radio to the nearest Top 40 station. I decided he didn't feel it, so I tried to shake it off. After the first song I felt sick to my stomach. Pop music does that to me. I switched it to the nearest metal station. I looked over to Gavin, who was obviously trying to tolerate it.

Just then, I heard screaming. I turned as quick as a flash and looked out the window. I saw people running, but not more than that. I looked in the rear view mirror. I froze, then put the car in drive and pulled into the left lane into oncoming traffic. I almost collided with several cars, then the left lane opened back up and I pulled in.  
"Did you see it?" I asked Gavin.  
He nodded. "Orthrus."  
"Wait, what's going on?" Avril asked.  
"We're in trouble." I said. I readjusted the rear view mirror. Police cars whizzed past us in the left lane, but the monster was running towards us...getting closer. I floored it, but I couldn't outrun it in this traffic.

It looked like we would have to fight it.

It advanced and jumped on top our car, digging its claws into the roof. I rolled down my window and reached for my bow. I shot an arrow into a billboard. The monster was momentarily distracted.  
"Now!" I told Gavin. Gavin leaped out of the passenger seat, activated his sword, and pushed it into the roof of the car. He must've stabbed the thing, because the monster shrieked. In that moment, I jumped out, pulling Avril along with me. That was when I got my first look at the thing. It was a dog. A giant dog, three times bigger than the hellhound I'd killed, with two heads and a snake's tail. Not two necks, but two heads V-ed off one. It had long white fangs, every one the size of my arm and red glowing eyes. I primed my bow and fired. It hit him in the nose. He shook his head, then saw me. I ran, and he followed. I fired arrows as I went, then made a turn at the last second in front of a skyscraper, and the two-story tall dog slammed into it. He quickly regained himself. Gavin was now by my side, with Avril by the side of the car.

I'm not going to lie. It was fun battling this thing with Metallica playing in the car. The music blared behind me: "Sleep with one eye open, Gripping your pillow tight, Exit light, Enter night, Take my hand, Off to never never land..." I shot two arrows at once, hoping I'd hit something that would be of help. I got the forehead of one of the heads, and the other arrow completely missed. I thought I'd gotten a critical hit, but the arrow just reflected off its head and into the street. This would be harder than I thought.

Then, I had an idea. "Avril," I said, turning to her. "I have a stupid idea."  
She smiled, almost wickedly, like she couldn't wait for what I was about to pull off. "Let's do it."  
I quickly explained. She hopped in the car, and I climbed on top of it on my knees.

Avril did a full 360 drift around the monster, with me on my knees constantly firing arrows while Gavin stabbed the monster in the feet and sides with his sword. Avril didn't have a driver's license, but she could drive. The monster was momentarily confused, trying to figure out whether or not to attack Gavin, the car or myself. One head finally tried to get Gavin while the other tried to swipe at me. I shot constant arrows into it, but not one was fatal.

Then, the mortals messed everything up. I didn't know what they saw, but soon police cars surrounded us and the monster. I yelled at Avril to stop the car, then got down and hid behind it in front of a building with the monster on the other side of the vehicle, while the police cars formed a barricade blocking the traffic. The dog with one head knocked a car towards the barricade, crashing it into the police vehicles, causing an explosion. Bullets went off all over the place at the monster, reflecting off its metallic skin. It growled, then pounced one of the police cars, which erupted in more flames.  
Gavin, Avril and I were huddled behind the beat-up compact.  
"Holy Black Sabbath!" I yelled instinctively.  
Despite the danger, Gavin smiled. "What?" he laughed.  
"Oh. Sorry, I meant to say 'Oh my gods'." I said it really sarcastically.  
"What's the plan?" Avril cut in. I looked out the window. The police were somehow seeing the monster...or something like it, and considered it a threat. A few of them fired some more rounds off at the giant sized, mutated dog, while most fell back. In a show of outrage, the monster trampled over cars, then picked one up in both its mouths, and threw it into the building in front of us. Glass and rubble fell around us. We ducked our heads, then heard an explosion. I looked up. Fire and smoke poured from the building.  
A lightbulb turned on over my head. "I have another stupid idea." I said.  
Gavin looked at me. "Okay, what?"  
I explained, and we put the plan into action. Gavin ran out from the right and stood in front of the car. Avril sat behind the car. I ran to the left.  
"Hey! Hey big guy!" Gavin yelled at the dog.  
It turned its heads and Gavin held up his sword. The dog howled and ran for Gavin. Gavin ran towards the car. Avril opened the back door on her side, then reached in and opened the door on the other. With the dog running after him, Gavin ducked into the car, rolled in the backseat and came out the other side. The dog was so close to him by that time that it slipped and its heads fell into the car. Perfect.

I concentrated hard. In front of me, the compact burst into flames. I had spontaneously combusted our rented compact. The music ended, and Gavin and Avril ran over to me, but the monster wasn't dead. It lifted its head out of the car, completely ripping up the roof, then crunched and swallowed it. It was on fire, but it wasn't dead.  
"Snap." I said under my breath. I concentrated, then willed the fire from the explosion to bombard the dog. Flames and smoke pushed in the monster's face. Eventually, it was distracted with just trying to get through the flames. I pulled out my lucky dagger and threw it. It hit the monster in a lucky spot in one of its necks. It howled, but it wasn't dead. I pulled out my bow and fired several arrows at it, now that I knew its weak spot. More howling. More blood. Finally, Gavin ran into the fire, chopped off both heads in the lethal spot, and the monster fell with a thud, then turned to dust.  
He collected my dagger and ran back toward Avril and I.  
"Come on, we need to go." he gasped. I heard more emergency vehicles coming in the distance. We ran outside the destroyed barricade and ducked into one of the skyscraper lobbies. After a little while, we looked up a bus station and walked there, fire truck sirens blaring behind us.


End file.
